Twitchy gets to ask Jonathan Boakes of the Darkling Room some questions about his forthcoming release Dark Fall Lost Souls
1) Hi Jonathan nice talking with you again and congratulations on the worldwide success of The Lost Crown a ghost hunting adventure. It was immense !
Jonathan – Oh, brilliant! I wasn’t expecting that. Thanks so much. The Lost Crown had a very big impact on a lot of gamers; from those who were eager for a lengthy, detailed and…how can I put it…strange experience. I didn’t really have an audience in mind, when writing and creating the game, feeling it was very personal piece, based upon my love of the classic ghost-story. It seems A LOT of people like those stories. I hope it delivered all the things I was aiming for, and a bit more. It’s good to know the game has fans, while I start planning the sequel…The Last Crown. That’s going to be very cool.
2) It’s been a while since Dark Fall 2: Lights out could you let us know where we are at now with a brief synopsis of the new game.
Jonathan -Dark Fall: Lost Souls is a brand new, stand-alone horror adventure set in an abandoned train station and hotel, deep in the woods of England. The tone, puzzle solving and supernatural themes of the first Dark Fall Games will all be present, but this third game is very dark in tone, and features a topical and controversial storyline. Those expecting a happy jaunt around the Dark Fall world should be prepared to face something terrifying and dark. The old hotel and train station have deteriorated far more than you could possibly imagine. Things really are ‘not what they seem’.
3) I see we will be using ghost hunting gadgets will these be similar to those in The Lost Crown or will you be introducing new equipment.
Jonathan -Nope, no ghost-hunting, actually. There are ghosts, but I think the Lost Crown ‘dynamic duo’ (Lucy Reubans and Nigel Danvers) suit that kind of activity much better than the aging, and disgraced Police Inspector, who you follow through Lost Souls. He’s searching for a missing child, Amy Haven, who disappeared 5 years ago, on Bonfire Night. Those passing years have seen many changes, few of them good, and the streets and abandoned places are not safe to wander. Only an old man, on a desperate mission, would be brave enough to stay out, after midnight, and go looking for darkness.
4) How have you found technology has benefited the game play since the first Dark Fall
Jonathan -Yes, Lost Souls definitely benefits from some snazzy technology. The game is a much scarier adventure than the first Dark Fall. My first effort, almost 10 years ago now, is creepy rather than scary. All the spooks were suggested, rather than explored, and it worked very well. Some genre savvy gamers nick-named Dark Fall ‘Dark-Myst’, based upon the similarities in style. This time round, adventure gamers expect a lot more dynamic elements to play with, so I’ve been happy to oblige with a new engine for the series. People who thought they knew the old hotel, and derelict train station, will have a great time exploring the place in more detail, and finding things which have been right under their noses for a decade! Oh, and not all of those ‘things’ are nice things to find…like the Life Leeches. I’d watch out for those!
5) it is documented that photography was your first passion , how do you bring this skill to the gaming world and have you ever been influenced or got an idea from a casual photo
Jonathan -I have to look at a lot of paranormal photographs…some are good, most are fakes (usually the better looking ones!), and some are terrible. But, you do get a sense of a place, from a spontaneous snap-shot that never comes across in a ‘tourist friendly’ pic. I like the unsung photos…and like seeing ghosts, beasts, UFO’s and other assorted Fortean weirdness, so yeah, I can imagine they do influence my thoughts and tastes. My favourite stuff can be found on websites looking at abandoned places, derelict locations and old military installations. Most are untouched, making them time capsules of a past we can only guess at. Quite spooky, and eerie. But, others are scrawled with graffiti, riddled with needles and show signs of habitation, no matter how ramshackle. Those locations are scary. Lost Souls mixes the two, and shows the world as realistically as I could muster. It’s not all ghostly moans and cobwebs, there are far nastier horrors waiting in the shadows.
6) Can you give us some sort of indication of the puzzle type – are they inventory based and what level of difficulty can we expect ?
Jonathan -There’s a difficulty level…Easy and Hard. Nice and simple. The clues to some puzzles are more obvious, on the Easy setting, and the timed sequences are much longer…I know how some ‘pure’ adventure fans loathe the timed-puzzle, so have taken that into account. The puzzles themselves range from inventory based interactions (I.e. Use Old Rusty Hammer on Door, and actually use it!), to decoding cyphers and enigmas, Da Vinci Code style. Anyone who likes my previous puzzles, or recognises them as adventure puzzles, will feel quite at home, but they may find themselves trying something new, and unusual.
7) Judging from your past success in this genre you have become somewhat of a master in “spooky” adventure games. what is your inspiration ?
Jonathan -The real-world mostly. I’m a bit of a Mulder. He kept lots of dodgy looking scrapbooks of the weird and wonderful. Since the X-Files I’ve tried to do the same. A lot of news stories are made up, for entertainment, but some prove a little more taxing to expose as a ‘fake’. I like those stories. I thought Cornwall would be a quiet life, after London and Scotland, but it hasn’t proven to be the case. My first clippings, from Cornwall, were taken from the same ‘local rag’, on the same day and featured a local Vampire Cult, and the be-heading of a local Warlock by his followers. So much for ghostly moans and cobwebs, eh?
Thank you for your time. I look forward to the release of Dark Fall Lost Souls and hope it brings further success to Darkling Room.
